Env groups demand earlier coal exit, more ambitious climate action from next German govt

In the runup to the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, eight leading environmental organisations have called on Germany’s next government to take immediate and decisive action to further climate protection measures, including committing to a coal phaseout by 2030 instead of the current 2038 deadline, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reports. The groups are demanding that the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens and Free Democratic Party (FDP) set an example during the Glasgow conference before the conclusion of their current coalition negotiations. The SPD, Greens and FDP must make it clear during the ongoing COP26 that Germany is reclaiming its role as a world leader in climate protection by pledging to phase out coal by 2030 and making climate policy changes in all sectors, they wrote in a joint appeal to the coalition partners. The signatories include Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), Campact, Deutscher Naturschutzring, Environmental Action Germany (DUH), Germanwatch, Greenpeace, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) and WWF Germany. Germany is the sixth largest CO2 emitter in the world behind China, the US, India, Russia and Japan, the groups stated. Germany's role is all the greater since it is the biggest state in the European Union, which accounted for 7.7 percent of world emissions last year, putting it in third place behind China (30.3 percent) and the US (13.4 percent).

The SPD, Greens and FDP, which entered coalition talks last month, are aiming to make industrial modernisation and climate protection measures a key pillar of the new government.